Mystic Messenger – Overall and Spoiler Free

More Mystic Messenger Content: First Impressions | Interface Analysis

Note that the ‘writing’ section that would normally be here is planned to be spread out per route.

This is a generalized review, I won’t be getting into individual route details here. Do note that I have only finished one route, so my judgments are based off that one. But the game consistency shouldn’t be varying too much.

Writing

Overall, the writing in the game is of good quality. Grammatically correct? Not really, but it’s based on internet speak, so it doesn’t need it. There are translation errors in the script, although it’s not a widespread enough problem to significantly affect the story. I still feel the weakest piece is the main character’s writing. A completely blank slate with choices to make that feel inconsistent at times (a personality isn’t defined internally, rather it’s defined depending on route, I assume). I understand they want you to be able to fully project yourself onto the character and immerse yourself into the story, but I think they slid too far down one side of the scale.

Sound

The game is partially voiced in some sections and fully voiced in others. As the developer is from South Korea, Korean is the spoken language. This may sound a little bit odd if you’re used to Japanese voices. I actually felt some of the voices sounded a little stiff, but I have very limited exposure to conversational Korean. The sound effects activated by the stickers in the chatroom portions are cute and add to the atmosphere, even though there is no translation given for English speakers. The overall sound quality is high enough, and given the fact that the game is 1.5GB already, it’s probably a good thing that the quality isn’t higher.

Art

The character sprites themselves are well drawn with good details added. In CGs, the anatomy may look odd here and there, but it’s not a distracting issue. They modified the CG layouts from traditional non-phone games by having some more split-screens for scenarios that are showing an event happening at far enough distances. This may take getting used to (I thought someone’s arm was chopped off before I realized what was happening), but it’s not a problem in the end.The backgrounds, bedrooms in particular, feel like they each have their own personality and are well drawn. Backgrounds of CGs occasionally lack detail to focus on the characters, which is probably a better place focal point. The thing that does end up distracting is the main character’s lack of drawn in eyes in the CGs. I understand they did it so that the player can ‘project’ onto the main character, but… it just feels a little odd.

A Word on DLC

I know that DLC is a very thorny subject for the gaming community and developers alike. So, what about the hourglass system instead of a one-time-price model on Mystic Messenger? First, let’s think about “norms” in the mobile market. It varies between Apple and Android app stores (Apple apps tend to run more expensive, generally), but most apps don’t exceed $5. The very highest end tends to be around $10, but games especially don’t reach this amount unless they were made by Square Enix.

Next, let’s look at the games Cheritz has made already. Without any discounts, they cost $30. As market research would tell you, it’s unrealistic to charge $30 for a mobile app and expect to get a large enough audience to check it. But at the same time, this is the most ambitious game they’ve done to date. A reasonable counterpoint would be to bring up that they could just develop a game for desktops again. However, I don’t believe the experience would have been as semi-immersive and good if that were the case.

Even if you hate the hourglass system, you at least can admire Chertiz’s commitment to keeping the system fair to the players and giving compensation when necessary.

Want More?

You can see my First Impressions post that includes some notes on the early story as well as some user interface notes. You also may be interested in the Interface Analysis I wrote, which goes into how Mystic Messenger followed design principles on the main menu. Regardless of all that, thank you so much for reading!